Listen, adapt, surprise! An individual that can master these 3 things is a good business man.

He gave anecdotes of his own experience when creating La Madeleine. Listen, adapt, surprise is how he started and improved his concept. Before opening his first location he stood outside his building and obtained insight from people that walked by as to what they expected from a French Bakery.

In several occasions he mentioned that networking is one of the reasons he was able to start his concept. In his words "Show your ass everywhere". That is how he met Stanley Marcus which motivated him to start La Madeleine and helped him get a great real estate price for his first location on Mockingbird Lane in Dallas, Texas.

One of the cliché’s he offered, that I enjoyed was, “common sense is what you can do better, faster, and cheaper.”

For future restauranteers he offered advice on how to open up new locations. To use a spiral snail path as it helps build momentum without complexities of managing locations across larger geographic areas which require different marketing material due to demographics.